Congress Releases Democratic Memo on Russia Scandal

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Latest on the Democratic memo that aims to counter GOP allegations that the FBI abused government surveillance powers in its investigation into Russian election interference.

Democrats have released a memo rebutting GOP claims that the FBI abused U.S. government surveillance powers in its investigation into Russian election interference.

The declassified Democratic memo seeks to dispute a main contention from a declassified GOP memo released earlier this month.

The GOP document accused the FBI and Justice Department of using information compiled by former British spy Christopher Steele to obtain a secret warrant to monitor a Trump associate without revealing that Steele's materials were funded by Democrat Hillary Clinton's campaign and the Democratic National Committee.

Republicans had said that federal authorities had not disclosed enough to the court about the political nature of the work.

But the Democratic memo contends that the Justice Department disclosed "the assessed political motivation of those who hired him."

The warrant at issue in the Republican memo was obtained under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA. The main allegation in the GOP document was that the FBI and Justice Department didn't tell the court enough about Steele's anti-Trump bias or that his work was funded in part by Hillary Clinton's campaign and the Democratic National Committee. They argued that the reliance on Steele's material amounted to an improper politicization of the government's surveillance powers.

Democrats have countered that the GOP memo was inaccurate and a misleading collection of "cherry-picked" details. They noted that federal law enforcement officials had informed the court about the political origins of Steele's work and that some of the former spy's information was corroborated by the FBI.